3-phenoxy propanal can be used as an intermediate for synthesizing medicine, plasticizer, and surfactant. Due to its wide applications, lot of efforts were made to develop a new method for preparing 3-phenoxy propanal. Up to the present, all the methods used for producing this product in the art encountered the following problems: severe reaction conditions, low yields, expensive starting raw materials and complicated reaction steps. For instance, the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,500,582 comprising reacting acrolein with phenol in the presence of p-resorcinol and pyridine under refluxing condition for 2.5 hours. The yield of 3-phenoxy propanal is about 4%. The reaction can be described as: ##STR3## The above reaction has suffered two disadvantages: severe conditions and low yield.
An article by J. Crosby and J. M. Stirling, et al., entitled "Elimination and addition reactions, part XIX. Elimination of phenoxide from .beta.-substituted ethyl phenyl ethers: the nature of activation in 1,2-elimination" J. Chem. Soc. (B), 4, 671 (1970), taught a method for preparing 3-phenoxy propanal comprising reacting 3-phenoxy propanol with C.sub.6 H.sub.11 N.dbd.C.dbd.N-C.sub.6 H.sub.11 and DMSO at 20.degree. C. for 16 hours. The yield is about 28%. The reaction can be shown as: ##STR4## The abovementioned method also suffers disadvantages of expensive raw materials and low product yield.
A. M. Yuldashev and his coworkers in their article, entitled "Synthesis of .beta.- and .gamma.-hydroxyphenyl butyl ester and study of their interaction with zinc chloride", Sint. Reakts. Sposobn. Org. Soedin, 32 (1983); CA. 101.72565 q (1984) disclosed a process for preparing 3-phenoxy propanal comprising oxidizing the 2-phenoxy ethanol and then undergoing Grignard addition to form PhOCH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 CHMeOH, which upon further oxidation will produce 3-phenoxy propanal. The reaction can be described as: ##STR5## The abovementioned process involves complicated reaction steps and the overall yield is also low.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing 3-phenoxy propanal derivatives.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing 3-phenoxy propanal derivatives at a very low reaction temperature (25.degree.-50.degree. C.) and under an open atmospheric condition without supplying additional oxygen, and have a yield about 76%.